All In One Day
by caseysalamander
Summary: Kat and Dante end up getting a job, where they have escort a girl back to her family. However demons, feds, the police and the fact that this girl is involved with the mob, make things just a bit more difficult than expected. This is of DmC Devil May Cry, the reboot (just in case). Oh and once again, don't take the genres too seriously, I have no idea what I'm doing xD.
1. Chapter 1

Kat enjoyed the weight of the big old book in her backpack. She had searched for it for over 5 years, after having seen pictures of it in the Order's database and now it was in her possession. She had taken up the search a few months ago, when she realized that she had nothing except the Wiccan compound to make rifts into Limbo, she had even lost her egg-timer.

"What's so good about that book?" Dante asked, not understanding her excitement over it.

"It's like a Wiccan textbook." Kat beamed. "I can make new things, Wiccan devices that can help me fight of demons."

"Isn't that what I do?" Dante asked. This comment annoyed her. Dante wasn't necessarily talking down to her, but he didn't understand why she would want to fight too. He was Nephilim, generally what he did, was kill demons. And the fact that Kat had begun to feel somewhat like a damsel in distress, when she had to hide and be saved by Dante and his arsenal of angelic and demonic weapons. And now she finally had some means to change that.

"Why can't I do it as well?" Kat mumbled. They walked in silence for while, Kat sulking a bit and Dante didn't quite understand why she was so quiet. However that silence was soon broken. The eerie familiar roar of incoming demons filled the air, the ground growled and a pack of Stygians jumped out.

"Take cover!" Dante called and summed Rebellion forth. Almost reluctantly Kat ran and hid behind a parked car and watched as Dante effortlessly smashed through the demons. The second that the last Stygian was crushed, a handful of Shielded Bathos appeared. Kat clenched her fists, of all the smaller demons, she hated those fat little flying bastards the most, so annoying.

"Come get it, motherfuckers!" The Nephilim called out and taunted the little demons. They smashed their shields and some of them threw mines on the ground. Using the Arbiter he pulled the Bathos' towards himself and smashed through their shields. As he thought he was finished, one of their mines landed by the car, where a wide eyed Kat stood. Scared and uncertain, she tried to evade it, running away from the car, however the demons didn't stop this easily and threw multiple mines, blocking every escape route.

"Dante…?" She breathed, standing completely still, in disbelief whether her life was about to end at the hands of a Shielded Bathos, her most hated kind of demon.

Not wasting a second, Dante summoned the Osiris and pulled himself towards Kat, lifted her up, and pulled them up towards a lamppost, away from the mines.

"Wait here." He winked, still in high spirits from the fight. Seconds later the demon's last sight was the Eryx smashing into its face.

"You okay?" He asked as Kat walked out into streets again.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Despite being happy to be alive, the fact that she once again had been the damsel in distress, bothered her. Minutes earlier she had been so certain that she was going to fight back with her Wiccan ways, but her role seemed to be pretty solid.

"Something wrong?" Dante looked concerned.

"No, I uh…" She shook her head, she shouldn't be this upset about it. "Let's just get home, okay?"

"Alright." Dante said hesitatingly, still eyeing her.

They hadn't gotten off the streets, until they heard footsteps behind them. Dante instinctively reached for his guns, prepared to shoot whoever or whatever was storming towards them.

"Excuse me!" A woman's voice called out. Surprised, both of them turned around. A woman in businesslike clothes stood behind them, with her shoes in her hand. They just stared at her, not sure what to make of this odd display. The woman quickly put her shoes back on and brushed the hair from her face.

"Uh, hello." She said. "I just saw what you did back there... with those… creatures." Dante's jaw tightened, he wasn't very keen on being known as a freak, now that Bob Bardas' propaganda seemed to be forgotten after Limbo had crashed into the real world.

"What do you mean?" He asked coldly.

"I want a favor of you." She said bluntly. "Of course I'll pay you, name a price."

"What's the deal, lady?" Even the offer of money didn't seem to relax him.

"There is a girl, her name is Ellie." The woman began, not affected by Dante's hostility. "Her family lives in the neighboring town, or rather the suburbs, you know, the west one, infested with the mob." She said this with some disdain. "But she has gone to school here, and there is some trouble in her family, so she is not safe here. Not that any of us are safe with those creatures roaming around now."

"So you want us to take her to the suburbs?" Kat intervened.

"Yes. I owe her family, and I'll pay you what you want to do it. I'll give you her address and such, once we've agreed on a price." This woman was certainly a non-nonsense kind of person. Kat and Dante exchanged looks.

"Gives us a sec, lady." Dante said and walked a bit away with Kat. "What do you think?"

"She's obviously involved with the mob." Kat shot the woman a glance.

"If we can name our price, I'm definitely interested in doing this for a living." Dante grinned. "If we're careful, we shouldn't get too involved. Besides, who the fuck is going to want to mess with me?"

"It does seem interesting." Kat said thoughtfully. The thought of actually getting some income and being able to actually buy something other than food once in a while. A special thought went to the ingredients and tools she was going to need for her Wiccan devices. And new clothes wouldn't hurt either, she looked at herself and Dante, yep, they could definitely use the money.

"Alright, ma'am." Kat smiled. "How much are you willing to pay?"

"We are picking her up from school?" Dante said in disbelief. The kindergarten a few houses down the road made him very concerned about this girl's age.

"She's been instructed to find us after school." Kat looked at the small note the businesslike woman had given her. "Apparently as few people as possible must know about this, so let's just go along." Dante sighed dramatically and Kat rolled her eyes. "Just think of the money, okay?"

The school bell rang and children began to flood out of the building.

"We must look like the weirdest parents ever." Dante pointed out as several children and parents gave them strange looks.

"Must be your hair, Snow White." Kat smiled.

"You don't think those doodles on your head and hands might have something to do with it?" Snow White bit back.

"These look nice." Kat gave him the finger.

"Are we starting dirty talking now?" Dante narrowed his eyes. "You sure you want to go there?"

"Hey, there are kids around, you'll look like a pedo, Snowy."

"Using children as a shield, Kat, I thought that was below you!" Dante gasped. And so a bickering began, that could easily divide their age by 3.

"Uh, are you…" A young teenage girl with her hair drawn back in a shaggy ponytail, broke of their argument.

"Oh, you must be Ellie." Kat said, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, are you the ones Charlotte talked about?" She seemed insecure and picked her nails.

"Yes, we're going to take you back to your family." Kat tried to smile, uncertain how to address the girl.

"Just the two of you?" The girl asked skeptically.

"We'll be plenty." Dante broke in. "You ready to go?"

"Uh I… Give me one second." The girl took of her backpack and started digging through it. She brought up a kind of necklace, covered with all kinds of straps, feathers and little beads.

"What the hell is that?" Dante stared at it.

"Um… a talisman?" She said carefully, as if she was afraid of judgment.

"Against what?" Kat as with a curious politeness.

"I attract demons, like very easily." She looked down. "I – if I wear this, they won't notice me as much."

Dante raised an eyebrow, but Kat leaned down and inspected it interested.

"That's really well done!" She exclaimed.

"Really?" The girl looked at her talisman. "I just used instructions I found of a page about protective charms online, and this one seemed like the best one for me."

"It's Wiccan." Kat smiled. "And it hides your presence from evil creatures, so you made just the right thing."

"Thanks." The girl smiled shyly. "I guess I'm sort of demon sensitive or something, I've been seeing demons since before everyone else began to see them, a few months ago." Dante and Kat exchanged knowing looks.

"I think you're a medium, like me." Kat said. "Like me." The girl was speechless, the discovering of the fact that she was not alone made her eyes almost sparkle.

"For real…?" She muttered almost inaudible, Kat smiled brightly.

"I'm Kat by the way. This is Dante." She pointed at white haired young man, who was getting impatient.

"I'm Ellie." The girl smiled. "Well, I guess you guys already knew that."

"Yep, we did." Dante said. "Now let's get going, okay?" With no money for any kind of transport, walking was their only current choice of getting to the suburbs.

"Yeah, alright!" Ellie said determined and lifted up her backpack. As Dante lead the way, she and Kat looked at each other, Ellie dying to know get the answers to the questions that had haunted her since early childhood.


	2. Chapter 2

As they walked, Kat and Ellie seemed to bond. Kat had the answer Ellie had needed and Kat was more than happy to help a fellow medium and to share their fellow interest in Wiccan culture and charms. Dante was walking a few steps ahead of them, trying not to listen. The subject didn't matter to him, and he basically just wanted the money. So when a deep grumbled shook the ground, he was a bit too excited about it.

"Let's roll!" He grinned, Kat and Ellie looked slightly more concerned. However no demons appeared. The buildings however began to shift, threatening to smash them like pancakes.

"Run!" Kat shouted. The strange trio began to run towards the end of row of buildings. However as if it was needed, Ellie tripped and was sent flying face down in the ground.

"Keep running!" Dante called to Kat, who had slowed down to help the little girl, but seeing as Dante was both faster and more agile, it made more sense for him to help Ellie. He made a full stop and turned around to sprint back to the girl, trying her best to get back up, clearly shaken and scared. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back with him, running and full speed, Ellie barely keeping up. After a quick look around, he realized they were not going to make it through to the other side. He looked up and found a ledge, capable to reach with the Osiris. Soaring through the air was not what Ellie enjoyed after frantically running for her life. After they landed on the roof on a shifting building, Ellie kept holding tight around his waist.

"Hey, we have landed now." He said. Should he get her to let go? It felt weird, awkward. She still didn't let go.

"Dante?! Ellie?!" He heard Kat call from the street below.

"We're here!" He shouted to her from the roof. "We're okay, coming down in a second."

"H… how are we going down?" Ellie finally loosened her grip.

"We jump." Dante said as if it was completely normal.

"Are you crazy?" Ellie shot a quick glance down. "You'll be crushed!"

"No, I won't." He smiled. "It's perfectly safe, I have certain abilities, that make me dangerous to demons and give me… superhuman advantages." He didn't want to explain the Nephilim business with her.

"Are you like… part demon or something?" She asked. "I read a lot of fantasy novels. " She added at Dante's confused look from her very accurate suggestion.

"Yes, I have a bit of demon blood." He said. Was she going to freak out or something? He didn't know how to handle things like that.

"I never thought it would actually happen." She muttered. "But I guess there are always cross overs… sort of." She smiled, hoping she hadn't been offending.

"Crossovers, yes." Of the worse kind, he thought. "Alright, let's go then." He walked to the edge and waited for her. Very reluctantly, she walked over to him and crawled up on his back. He heard her take a deep breath, then he jumped of the edge. Her deep breath didn't stop her from screaming. Right into his ears.

"Are you okay?" Kat asked as Ellie carefully climbed of Dante's back.

"Yeah, yeah…" She said, obviously shocked.

"I'm not." Dante covered his ears. "I think my eardrums have burst." Both girls ignored him.

They were about to continue on their merry way, when a huge hoard of demons came out. Stygian, Death Knights, Kat's favorite, Shielded Bathos and a handful of others.

"Seriously?" Dante grunted annoyed. Kat took Ellie's arm and they took cover. Angry, he summoned Aquila and began slicing at his enemies, occasionally shifting to Eryx or Arbiter to take down the shield-carrying demons. Their numbers were vast and it seemed like they kept on coming. Fucking demons.

"Dante!" He heard Kat call. "I think the feds are on their way!" Shit, he had to end this now. He ran into the middle of the crowd, trying to get the demons as close as possible, before he released the Devil Trigger. The power of Sparda. Now completely effortlessly, he sliced and hacked at the airborne demons, now immensely stronger. He had gotten most of them, when he felt the Devil Trigger's power fade again. After crushing the skull of a floating Stygian, he was back to normal. During his time in Devil Trigger mode, the feds had actually arrived as well. One of them must have had a poor aim or have seen him as demon as well, either way, 5 shots were fired at him and 3 of them found their way into his stomach. His otherwise infinite record of not landing on his face after a jump, was now broken. Usually bullets hardly demanded attention from him, but these were different. They actually hurt, and stopped his actions and focus. He got on his feet again and looked around. The feds were now completely occupied with the demons and seemed to have forgotten about him. In order to protect their citizen, the government had issued huge research projects on how to deal with the demons, and they had actually made weapons, especially bullets, that were somewhat poisonous to the demons, making the feds capable of actually killing them. Was he hit by those kind of bullets?

"Dante, we've got to get out of here!" Kat came running and pulled him to his feet. "Ellie says she knows a way." Dante followed without a word. They ran in back alleys, avoiding the heavily populated streets. After putting some distance between them and the feds and demons, they stopped in front of an old, closed down bakery.

"Okay, then it's just through here and then we get to the subway." Ellie gasped for breath. She picked out a hairpin and began picking the lock.

"Impressive." Kat said. Then she noticed something, a very subtle thing. First of all, Dante hadn't smashed the door down already, secondly, he was leaning heavily against the wall, leaning forward, clutching his stomach with a painful expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" She asked concerned, carefully approaching him. Then she noticed his blood covered hand, the blood stain on his shirt slowly spreading.

"Must be the bullets. Demonic." He gasped.

"Oh my god!" Ellie exclaimed when she saw the blood. "You were shot?"

"Yeah." He winced as he walked to the door. "I guess those anti-demonic bullets are effective against me as well. This will heal in a minute." He gave them both a reassuring smile. Not quite convinced, Kat followed him inside.

"At least bandage it up." She suggested as she closed the door behind them. Ellie led them into the kitchen, where she found some towels and tablecloths in a cupboard.

"I used to come here a lot." She explained. "Back when I was 'crazy'." She handed the towels to Kat, wary of the injured Dante. "These are clean."

"Alright." Kat turned to him. "Take of your shirt."

"Exciting." He gave her a cheeky smile, but nevertheless began to take of his coat. But his injuries proved the make the task of undressing not so simple. The movements clearly pained him, even though he tried to hide it.

"Here…" Kat quietly walked over to him and pulled his coat of his shoulders, then began working his shirt up over his head, which was easier said than done, seeing as he was much taller than her. When she walked over to the sink to wet the towels, a small, thankful smile sneaked its way on her lips. A few months ago, their roles had been reversed. However that smile faded, when she turned around. The lower half of his torso was covered in blood, and some of it had run down his legs as well.

"Maybe you should lie down." She pointed to the table in the middle of the kitchen.

"I'll be fine, don't worry." He said, but not very convincing, despite his efforts, he was clearly not fine.

"We have to clean the blood of you at least." Kat tried to sound stern, but she was very worried. What if the poison was too strong for his body to heal? "So get your ass on that table!"

"I love it when you talk dirty." Dante apparently had an incontrollable need to make dirty comments whenever he could. She sent an embarrassed glance to Ellie, hoping the girl didn't think they 'talked dirty' regularly, but the girl just seemed confused and scared.

"Stay close, okay?" Kat gave her a little smile. "I know this isn't nice to watch, but he doesn't die so easily." Ellie nodded and stepped closer. Taking a deep breath, Kat turned to Dante, who had actually gotten his ass on the table, now resting on his elbows. With the wet towel, she began to clean the blood of his body, avoiding the wounds at first. Before she started to clean them, she sent Dante a warning look, and he nodded. When the towel touched the wounds, his body tensed up and he stopped breathing, but not a single sound escaped his lips. When the blood was cleaned off, she examined the wounds. The bleeding had almost stopped and she could see a very faint glow around the edges. He was right, he was healing, he was going to be fine.

"Are the bullets still in?" Ellie was now standing beside them.

"Leave them in." Dante frowned. "Let's get you home first."

"No." Kat broke in. "Don't you think leaving them in will make it worse?" she wasn't actually sure whether this was the case with someone with his powers. Dante rolled his eyes and was about to say something, but stopped. His eyes widened in a disgusted frown and he closed his mouth so tight, they could almost hear his jaw creek.

"What…" Cat began, but he swung his legs off the table and headed for the sink. Leaning into the sink, he began to cough and spit, and finally vomited. Kat and Ellie just watched, unsure of what to do and set back by the somewhat horrible display. When Dante finally stopped coughing and stepped away from the sink, he seemed disoriented and weakened. He let go of the sink and stumbled to the floor, where he remained, gasping. Both girls came alive and rushed over to him. There was blood on his mouth and chin and Kat made sure not to look in the sink.

"Dante?" she sat down in front of him. "Dante, can you hear me?" she was afraid he had lost consciousness, because his eyes were closed and he didn't really react to anything they did. "Dante?" She said louder and took his head in her hands. Much to her relief, he opened his eyes and straight at her.

"Yeah." His voice was hoarse. "I'm here."

"What happened?" Ellie asked. "I thought you were healing or something."

"The bullets." Was all he said. He looked sick and his head felt warm. Had he worked up a fever already? "The poison, I can't keep up."

"We have to get the bullets out." Kat said and helped up to his feet. Ellie tried to contribute, despite the fact that her head was in the same height as his elbows. Not quite effortlessly, the girls got him to the table again, this time he didn't sit up, just lay flat on his back, seemingly exhausted.

"How are we going to get the bullets out?" Ellie whispered as she stared at his bloodied stomach.

"I… I'm not sure." Kat looked around. This was an old bakery, not exactly equipped with medical supplies or equipment. "Start looking for anything you think can work."

"But there isn't anything! We can't exactly use a spoon." Panic was growing in her voice.

"Hey, calm down." Kat gave her a little smile. "We'll have to improvise. Just look for anything that can be used to grab things or something." Ellie nodded and began to look around and Kat joined her, sending worried looks to Dante in regular intervals. A few minutes later, they had raided every cupboard and drawers in the building and the only usable item they had found was a pair of tweezers from the bathroom. They cleaned them as well as they could and went downstairs.

"I guess this will have to do." Kat dreaded to dig it into Dante's flesh.

"All we could find was tweezers." Ellie said apologetically as they entered the kitchen. Dante nodded and held out his hand. Did he intend to do it himself?

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Kat asked.

"Are you sure you can do it yourself?" she looked at him. Despite his general rudeness and lewd comments, he still possessed kindness. For just a badly timed second, she was incredibly happy to be with him, then she focused on reality.

"Yes, I can." She said meekly. "Besides I don't even think it's you're capable of digging a bullet out of your own stomach. You'll have to sit up and the angle will too difficult."

"Then you guide me." He held out his hand again. "Come one, it's not going to be a pretty sight, even if anesthetics worked on me. Besides, you can't hold me down."

"Then you'll have to lie very still." Holding the tweezers away from him. "I can do this, let me help. It'll be easier for you this way."

"Are you sure?" He asked after a while. She nodded firmly. "Alright." He grabbed the edges of the table, ready for the incoming pain. Kat turned to Ellie.

"Look, as he said, this isn't going to be a pleasant sight. Wait outside, if you want to?" Ellie nodded and went out the door, even up the stairs and into the bathroom, hoping to avoid hearing any sounds of pain.

"Okay, let's do this." Kat said and rolled her shoulders. She was so nervous, but rather this than let Dante dig out the bullets himself.

"In your own time." He tried to sound cheeky, but he was drawing short breaths and his knuckles had turned white from clenching the table. Kat carefully placed a hand by the wounds, for stability and tried to decide where to start. She cleared her throat and wiped some blood away, hoping to regain some more focus. She tried to locate one of the bullets, it was barely visible in his flesh, but it was there.

"Here I go." She said and as carefully as possible reached for the bullet. Every muscle in Dante's body seemed to tense up and he gritted his teeth.

"Hold still." Kat said, trying to grab the bullet with the tweezers. A series of hisses and grunts came from him, but she wasn't actually sure if he had tried to say something. Then she felt the tweezers touch the bullet and praying to every god she knew for luck, she pulled it out.

"Got it!" She said. Dante was gasping on the table, resisting the urge to curl up in pain. "Two to go, come on." He didn't exactly seem encouraged, but lay back down, readied for the next bullet to be dug out.

It was sat deeper in the flesh that the previous bullet, and much to her horror, Kat had to make several attempts to even get a hold of it.

"Hold on." She said as Dante let out a loud groan, his first real human sound so far. She was tried not to think, just get the bullet out, but deep down, she wanted to just forget this all, throw the tweezers away and hide somewhere. But the fear of him possibly dying from this kept her going. On the seventh or so attempt, she finally got the bullet out. She dropped it on the floor and watched as Dante, half-conscious by now, gasped in pain. Guilt, helplessness and fear threatened to make her lose focus and panic, but she fought it as well as she could.

"Alright." Her voice was weak. "One m-more." She had a big lump in her throat. What if he didn't make it? When Dante let out an especially painful sigh, she had to turn around and bite her lip hard. Do not cry, Kat!

"Are… are you okay?" he was basically gasping, his voice even weaker than hers.

"Yes." She said, blinking a tear-in-progress away. "I'm okay." He tried to give her a skeptical look, but it ended in a grimace. Gathering all her concentration and will, Kat approached the last bullet, hoping that ti wouldn't take half a dozen tries to get out. Much to her relief, the bullet was not nearly as deep as the previous ones. But when she was about to grab it, Dante made a jolt, making her almost stab him.

"Lay still." She said. "This won't be as bad."

"S-st-stop." He hissed. His body made another jolt and she realized that he was suppressing a coughing fit. She moved behind him and had him sit somewhat up, supporting his weight. A horrible gurgling cough began, he was almost choking. It was like her fingers were numb with panic, she had no idea how to help him now. When the coughing stopped, he leaned back so heavily, she almost buckled under from the weight. She awkwardly stroked his arm, unsure whether to go for the bullet again. It seemed like he could use a break, but if the bullets were killing him, they had to get out as soon as possible. Then Dante smiled at her, he had blood on his teeth and it made him look downright creepy, but the smile was genuinely reassuring.

"One to go, right?" he croaked, his voice was incredibly hoarse from the coughing. "Come on, you're doing great." She was doing great? It sure didn't look like it, he was pale, weakened, sweating and his face and chest was splattered with blood.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. "You're hurting and I… I can't, I'm causing so much pain, right?" this was probably ridiculous, but she couldn't help it, she felt guilty for all his pain.

"Hey, this isn't your fault." He reached out for her arm and brushed it. "Come on, you're getting so good at this." He flashed another bloody smile. She let out a sound, a mixture of a scoff, a sob and a laugh. She took a deep breath and went for the last bullet. She was thankful that Dante was so tired by now, he hardly moved and she got the bullet out in a matter of seconds. She cleaned the blood of her hands and off his body, then made a bandage with the remaining towels and tied it firmly around his wounds.

"Dante, are you conscious?" she realized he had lay completely still and with his eyes closed for a while.

"Barely." He mumbled. "Why, do you have a trick to keep me awake?" he gave her another of his cheeky smiles., but it was obvious that he was exhausted.

"No, just get some rest." She smiled back. "I'm going to check on Ellie." She put the biggest towel on him as a blanket and went upstairs.


	3. Chapter 3

She knocked gently on the bathroom door and entered. Ellie sat on the floor, surrounded with small containers with various herbs and powders in them.

"How is he?" the girl asked anxiously.

"I think he'll be fine." Kat said. "I got the bullets out, I don't know what more to do."

"Me neither." Ellie gestured to the containers. "I have all these, but without a recipe, it's hard to make any kind of healing potions or whatever."

"Oh…" Kat breathed. She ran downstairs and got the Wiccan book out of her backpack and ran back upstairs.

"I have this." She opened the book. "It's Wiccan traditions, charms and such. With our powers, there has got to be something we can do, right?" Ellie nodded excited and they began to look through the book. There were several ways to treat wounds in it, but with Ellie's ingredients, they could only make one of them.

"It's like one of those 'minor healing potion'." Ellie said. "Or ointment. I play a lot of video games." She added when Kat gave her a confused look. But when they were finished, Ellie suddenly became a little fidgety.

"I have to tell you something." She said. "I saw the neighbor's TV. They are saying that I'm missing, the police are looking for me."

"I thought your parents knew where you are and what's going on!" the last thing they needed was to be on the run from someone.

"They do." Ellie didn't look up. "This is a rivaling family, they've always hated our guts. I guess they want me to make some negotiations about territory or something." Kat cursed under her breath..

"Alright, uh, let's get this to Dante and then we need to make a plan." She opened the door and Ellie followed her downstairs. They had to get Ellie home as soon as possible, she didn't want this little girl to go through even more. But could Dante make it? Could he even walk in the state he was in now?

To her surprise, Dante was not in an unconscious slumber and was fairly easy to wake up.

"We made some ointment for you." Ellie said carefully. Dante sent the pale green goo a skeptical look.

"Where did you get the ingredients for that?" He asked. "How long have I been out?" he added confused. His voice was already stronger, though still hoarse.

"I had some stuff in my bag." Ellie shrugged. "And we used Kat's book for recipe, so it's totally legit."

"Who carries shit like that around with them?" he inched away from Kat, who was holding the mixture, but had to stop. There was still some way to go, before he was up and kicking again, despite his healing powers.

"Just hold still." Kat said and undid the bandage, should they continue on their own and have Dante wait here? What if they encountered resistance? They wouldn't be able to defend themselves from a hoard of demons.

"What's wrong?" Dante was eyeing her.

"Nothing." She lied and smeared the goo on his wounds. The wounds actually looked better, smaller already, but Dante still seemed to be severely weakened by the poison.

"Yeah?" He said skeptically and turned to Ellie, who didn't know what to say but the truth.

"The police are looking for me." She didn't meet his eyes. "A rivaling family has set this up."

"That's it?" Both girls looked up surprised. Was he delirious from the fever?

"Are you aware of what that means?" Kat asked.

"Remember Bob Bardas?" Kat nodded. "Yeah, I've been running from the police since I was 8. And I had the media on me as well. They don't really remember us, so we have an advantage."

"And a disadvantage." Kat nodded at his wounds.

"This will heal in no time." He smiled, his teeth still a little bloody, but Kat was still very skeptical. "Okay, but I can walk and run, that's all we need. We'll just avoid demons, go through the shabby parts of town and we're out."

"Alright, but shouldn't we, like disguise ourselves?" Ellie looked at Dante's white hair and Kat's tattoos. "Should we like, steal other people's laundry or something?" she looked a bit excited.

"I like her." Dante grinned. "They're looking for a girl, right? Hide your hair, dress as a boy." He turned to Kat. "You should…"

"Don't go there." She said, jokingly threatening to jab in him the stomach. He sent her a mischievous smirk. The girls went on the laundry hunt, leaving him on the table. It was surprisingly easy to steal clothes, no one kept an eye out for them anyway, so they actually had time to browse, giggling when finding oversized underwear and other oddities.

They returned with the bakery with their stolen clothes and began disguising Ellie, hiding her hair in a skull cap, giving her baggy pants and a checkered shirt.

"I look like a hillbilly or something." Ellie studied herself in the mirror and made a heavy southern accent. Kat sufficed with an oversized hoodie and a pair of jeans. However Dante refused to put on a disguise and only took a shirt to cover his bandage.

"I'll wear the hood on." Was his argument. He actually seemed to be healing, he could already move more freely, though he still needed help from time to time.

As Dante had suggested, they stuck to the shabbier places of towns. Drug dealers, beggars and trouble makers frequently tried to get their attention, but Dante's appearance and the occasional glimpses of Ebony and Ivory made them pass through unharmed. However they unavoidably approached more crowded streets and were more likely to encounter a police force.

"Did they say anything about us?" Dante asked. He was getting tired from the walking already, his fever hadn't gone down and the pain hadn't completely gone away.

"No, they just mentioned that I was gone missing." Ellie made her voice sound more masculine, she was very much into the disguise.

"Alright, then try and hide behind us for the most part." He resumed walking. "But when the police is there, act natural, talk to us and so on." She nodded determined and tugged in her backpack. They continued walking, the streets getting more and more frequent and so were the police officers.

"Should we find a car or something?" Ellie asked. "It'll be harder to stop us then, right?"

"We could hijack one…" Dante suggested.

"No, we can't." Kat said. "If we get caught, we will have car theft and kidnapping on our records."

"And we won't get paid." This seemed more of a concern to him than the criminal records.

A big crowd seemed to have gathered close to one of the main streets, they would have to get past the crowd to get to the suburbs. Blending in wouldn't be an option, but the high number of police officers indicated that it wouldn't be so easy.

"What is it?" Kat stood on her toes to see. "Some kind of riot?"

"No." The tone in Dante's voice was tense. "Demons, they're lurking somewhere." As if right on cue, the crowd spread, screaming. A smaller horde of demons stood in the middle of the streets, smashing their weapons on the ground, threatening the people. The feds could take care of such a small horde more or less easily, the police might even stand a chance. Reluctantly, Dante followed the girls and hid behind a car.

"We have to get moving though. They'll notice us." He said. Avoiding both demons and the police, they made their way across the street , but further up ahead, a gathering of police officers tried to help the people, telling them where to go, helping a few injured and so on. They would notice the strange trio, seeing as they were the last to arrive.

"I'll go on ahead, you guys sneak your way through." Kat ran ahead and distracted the nearest officers. Dane and Ellie took cover behind a broken statue, something Mundus had put up once upon a time.

"There's a car there!" Ellie pointed to a bright red convertible, nice. Timing it with Kat's rather impressive distractions, they covered behind the little car, Dante grunted as he had to bend over to actually be hidden by it. Suddenly a Lesser Stygian landed on the car, looking straight at Ellie. Dante reached up and pulled it down by the ankles, before it could make a sound and began choking it. It clawed and scratched at him, but he didn't let go. Just before he killed it, he tossed it out, as a distraction so they could get away. To his relief, they could hide behind a van this time, one of those white ones, almost begging to have "Free Candy" written on it. He leaned against the side of it. Although small, the fight with the demon had taken a lot of strength from him. Ellie hadn't made a sound, she was completely still. He looked at her, she eyes were wide and her lips were sealed shut, she was terrified. And she was holding his sleeve, as if to make sure she didn't fall behind. This girl was tough. He twisted his arm out of her grip and took her hand instead. Her slender little hand almost disappeared in his. They continued, hiding and crouching behind objects, timing their runs with Kat, who tirelessly played the role of a panicking citizen.

They finally reunited when the cafés and shops had been replaced with neat little houses. Kat couldn't help but smile when she saw the two holding hands. Ellie blushed and immediately let go, but Dante sent her a little wink, making her blush even more. After a few hours, Dante seemed to be getting very tired, stopping every five minutes, the poison was still fighting him, so they eventually got on a bus, taking them some of the way.

"We're super close now." Ellie said as they stepped of the bus. "It's down to the sea and then like, 2 miles or so."

"Lovely." Dante said, very unenthusiastically. Feeling somewhat safe, they walked along the sea. Kat found herself enjoying the view. She had been to the harbor, seen the see before, but not like this. This was calm and relaxing, not full of horny sailors and rotting fish. Ellie was getting excited as well, she had been through so much the past hours, she couldn't wait to get home, in just a few hundred yards, she would be able to see her house. Dante was understandably the only one, who wasn't enjoying himself one bit. The crouching and running hadn't done wonders to him, and his fever was still high. He needed rest, days of it preferably.

"It's just around this…." Ellie was broken off by a very unwelcoming sound, the growl of demons. A dozen Stygians and a handful of Bathos waited around the corner.

"Ah, come on." Dante groaned. Gritting his teeth, he summoned the Aquila and sent it flying towards the demons, it took more effort than he thought and he almost fell to one knee from the movements. Stepping closer, he switched to Rebellion and hacked at the closest Stygian, smashing it to bits. He felt blood seeping out through the bandage and his eyesight was getting hazy. Really? He thought bitterly. He was getting weaker by the second, and the last three Stygians saw their chance and hacked back at him, sending him to the dust. He was about to get back up, when the Bathos threw a bomb on the ground. He barely managed to roll away, before it exploded.

"Get out of here!" He shouted to the girl. "Get her home!" The Stygians were upon him and with one last effort, he hacked them to bits with Rebellion, falling to the ground afterwards. Kat's body moved on its own, she ran forwards, avoiding a Bathos' bomb knelt beside Dante.

"What are you doing, get out of here!" He said as she reached behind him.

"Take cover." She stood up, holding Ebony and Ivory in each hand. Firing with one hand first, she helped Dante on his feet. Reluctantly, he limped out of reach for the Bathos and away from Kat. The recoil made her blink almost every time, so it was difficult to keep track of the Bathos. How many had she killed, if any? She kept on firing, if she stopped now, they'd have a chance to get to her.

Ellie walked out to Dante and supported his weight, sending scared eyes to Kat, how was raining bullets on the demons.

"Tell her… how many are left" Dante panted. The pain was coming back, probably a coughing fit as well. "Where they are and… if they're about to attack." He tried to watch as well, but soon coughing was all he could do. Moving on instinct, Ellie moved closer to Kat, counting the demons.

"There are three left." She called out. Kat sent her a thankful thought.

"To your right!" the little girl shouted, as a Bathos was ready to attack.

"Two to go!"

"Twelve o'clock!"

"Left!"

"One to go!"

The last Bathos dissolved in the bullet rain and both girls relaxed. She walked back to Dante, who was done coughing and was pulling himself to his feet with the help of a lamppost. Kat handed him the guns.

"Way to go." He smiled slyly and took the guns. Kat smiled and looked down. She was actually quite proud of herself.

"Half the credit goes to Ellie though." He added and Ellie beamed. "Seriously, what were your eyes closed the whole time?" he knew fully well about the recoil, it didn't affect him, but for someone of Kat's size, it was quite a lot.

"I'm totally going to ask Dad to double your pay." Ellie said as they neared the house.

"By all means." Dante said, not so modestly.

"Okay, you guys wait here, I'll talk to them first." She instructed them to a bench by the garden. The house was so huge, their garden was probably the size of a park.

"I think she likes you." Kat said after Ellie had disappeared.

"Of course she does." Dante grinned. "What's not to like?"

"And I think you like her as well." Kat smiled.

"If she doubles our pay, then yes." He seemed impossible to tease, but one of these days, she was going to get him. "You guys seemed pretty chummy as well."

"I guess." Kat shrugged. She and Ellie had talked on their way here. She had always felt alone with her psychic powers, so it was great to actually share with someone, who understood. And the fact that she could tell Ellie, that she was not crazy and never was, for seeing demons, helped her as well. No one had told her that, she had had no mentor, no guidance, and now she was able to give it to someone else, spare them from what she had gone through. "She's a really sweet girl."

"Yeah, she does an amazing redneck accent." He actually sounded impressed. Kat laughed.

"Ah, greetings, friends!" A man walked towards them with Ellie by her side. Everything about him screamed 'mob'. Was he Ellie's father? She really didn't take after him then.

"Hello sir." Kat stood up and shook his hand. Dante remained seated for obvious reasons, and waved nonchalantly to the man.

"I'm Ellie's father, Carlos." He smiled politely, even to Dante. He thanked them and they agreed on their reward, which ended up being three times the size of what they had actually been promised.

"Now, do you want to come in for dinner?" He asked as he handed them the money. They had actually gotten a briefcase filled with money. "My wife is an excellent chef."

"No thanks." Dante said. "We really need to be getting home."

"I see, no problem." He looked around. "Where's your car?"

"We don't have one, sir." Kat said. "We came here on foot. And by the bus." Kat might as well said that they had crawled all the way here, Carlos first cursed then pondered loudly on the fact that they hadn't come here by car.

"You could have hijacked one." He suggested. Dante looked at Kat and raised an eyebrow, _told you so._

"Well um, we didn't." Kat shrugged. "We didn't want to risk getting stopped."

"Yes yes…" Carlos looked around. "Well I'm not sending you away on foot again. Or by the bus. Come with me." He lead them to the garage, where several shiny, expensive cars stood in a neat row. He held out a key. "I never use this one anyway. I know it's small, but it's just not…me." He smiled and threw the keys to Dante. "It's this one." He pointed at a jetblack Renault.

"Are you serious?" Dante asked.

"Oh absolutely." Carlos nodded.

"Alright." He handed the keys to Kat, Dante had never gotten around to get a license, and he was in no condition to drive right now. Kat got in and backed out of the garage. As Dante was about to get in, Ellie and a woman, most definitely her mother, seeing as they looked so alike, came out of the house. Ellie was still wearing her 'hillbilly' clothes.

"You guys aren't even going to say goodbye?" She grinned. Her mother smiled and thanked them several times before Ellie sent her and her father inside.

"This has been like, the most fucked up day ever." She sighed.

"I can think of one that tops this." Dante said absentmindedly.

"I don't know what to say." Ellie choked up a little. A small rush of panic ran through Dante, as the thought she was going to cry. "I'd probably be somewhere in the gutter if it weren't for you. Or being held hostage… Or killed by demons."

"Hey, with this much money, we're glad to help." Dante smiled and Kat shot him an annoyed look.

"I'm glad you're safe." Kat smiled. "Despite it all, I'm glad I met you."

"You too." Ellie then walked over and hugged Kat, then Dante, careful not to touch his wounds. "You guys are like my heroes now." She gave Kat another hug. "Can we keep in touch? I'm still not sure on all this 'medium' stuff." She whispered in her ear.

"I'd like that." Kat smiled, she was almost choking up as well now.

"Awesome." She dug in her pocket and handed Kat a card. "This is totally lame, but I actually have these small cards with my number on it and stuff."

"Thank you." Kat took it and put it safely in her pocket. "See you." Ellie nodded and dried a tear from her eye. She leaned in on the window for a last goodbye.

"Hey Dante." She called out, he was ready to fall asleep any minute now. "Thank you for everything, for your, uh, sacrifice." Completely speechless, he nodded as thanks. "Hey, you guys could totally make a business out of this." She suddenly said. "Sword for hire against demons and the occult. Make a card, then I'm not the only lame one."


End file.
